The first year of Metallica's subscription vinyl club was beset by a comical number of setbacks, delays and misfires. The "apology" emails received from their team in mere months numbered, anecdotally, at approximately a half dozen.

Which is all to say...running a timed quarterly vinyl subscription service is not easy for ANYONE, even one of the biggest bands in the world with an insanely motivated, spending and loyal fanbase.

While not particularly a Metallica fan, I had signed up just to see how things would go. Every miscue stung, particularly, because they were definitely issues I'd previously dealt with in overseeing the Vault.

All that to say, I was primed to sign up for year 2, with their focus shifting from 7"s to 12"s I was excited to see what that potential could bring to the project.

I'm surprised to find out that I had actually already heard the a-side here, a version of "Blackened" where each band member recorded and filmed themselves in their own home studio set-up and the individual parts were married together in a COVID-inspired fit of inspiration, that, say 20 years from now will probably either be viewed as an early sign of what eventually became the norm -OR- a weird wrinkle in history where such novel workarounds were mandatory.

Either way, I think the song sounds stock.

The live take switches it up slightly, with auxiliary mandolin and organ instrumentation added to the mix. Vague country and spaghetti western vibes. Just not my cup of tea.

If I have to pick a favorite here, it's the cover of Alice In Chain's "Would?" recorded in the same COVID remote manner as the a-side rendition of "Blackened" here. Never considered myself an AIC fan, never had any of their records, but shit, they were inescapable on 90s alternative radio. I like the optics of Metallica covering this band that came after them and was never truly quite as big as them. A kind gesture.

Bonus points for this 12" coming with a hidden, unexpected slipmat inside the jacket. While the jams may be a little off from my "thing" I certainly like watching how other folks unfurl the tricky tricky world of the subscription vinyl world.

I find it particularly impressive that a club with such high numbers of subscribers would still have such consistently high prices for its wares on the secondhand market. They must be doing something right and good for them.